I am interested in hearing from people all over the country about the job situation in their area. In most parts of the South jobs are scarce. This is mainly due to free world trade. American workers just cannot compete with third world nations. To make it worse, the American corporations are building factories overseas and bringing those products to the US and selling them here for huge profits. In my county over 200 people have lost their homes due to factory closings.

I was just wondering how the job situation was in other parts of the US ?

Politicians of both parties talk about "Free Trade" when what is really going on is simple labor arbitrage. Paul Craig Roberts understands what is going on, and , even though he was No.2 man in Treasury under Reagan, he is not carried by the big media. http://vdare.com/roberts/060203_jobs.htm

Lou Dobbs on CNN says about as much as he can say and stay employed. His is the only show on TV I would recommend.

The gist of the article is that wages and salaries as a percentage of GDP in the US are falling every year, while profits are taking a larger share. 2005 was another all-time record for the share of GDP that ended up as profits.

The share of the country's wealth owned by the top 3% has DOUBLED since 1990.

if you don't understand the cause of a disease, you can't treat it rationally.

blaming the jews for what's happening in america is addressing far less than half the problem.

the major part of the problem is the american consumer and stock-holder.

the consumer wants lower prices. which of you would buy a tv for $300 because it was made in america by american workers, when you can get the same item for $199, made in china or mexico?

now, that's not a rhetorical question, because it's already been answered out in the market-place, and we all know which tv set won. how many tv's are made in america these days? a one-handed man can count them on the fingers of the missing hand.

when you buy stock in a company whose dividends don't increase, doesn't your broker advise you to buy stock that pays higher dividends? and do you then say - "no, company A is an american company, paying american workers decent wages, so i am prepared to stick with it rather than buy stock in company B, which makes its stuff in china but pays 2c on the dollar more in dividends"?

that's not a hypothetical question either.

and which one of you, when running a company, would not say "if we fire 10% of the staff this year, and 10% next year, the value of my stock options will double and i can retire" rather than "i can't fire all these good people just to see my own personal worth double without any merit on my own part"?

this is yet another question that has been answered many times in the market.

i guess we're all just going to have to face it: unless we can make ourselves worth more than others, on the one hand, and act responsibly to those around us, on the other, we're headed for the toilet.

and for the rest: if we stop putting money into the military, and put it into building a better life for ourselves instead, we'll find that the better life gets for us, the fewer enemies we will have.

since these are both rational and ethical proposals, i will certainly not hold my breath waiting for them to be adopted.

In Florida, jobs seem fairly plentiful in most industries. While tradesmen are plentiful, it's difficult to find reliable workmen. As a result, for example, a person who does quality work, shows up to complete the job, and is reasonably priced has far more work than they can do because they are in such demand once word gets around. Wages are relatively low in all fields, i.e. salaries are about 30% lower here than, say, the Chicago area, but the cost of living is also lower.

For full time workers, in Florida, you're in competition with retirees starting second careers and working part time, and the Hispanics who work cheap but do poor quality work much of the time.